With manager and Otani situations resolved, Yankees are free to move forward with offseason plans

With Aaron Boone officially named on Monday as the new manager, confirming the Daily News report on Friday, and Shohei Otani no longer a consideration, the Yankees can move forward now in planning for next season, which mostly means looking at ways to add pitching.

On Monday Brian Cashman said he has talked to CC Sabathia's agent about the possibility of the big lefthander returning next season, and that makes sense on a short-term contract.

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But the GM also indicated the Yankees have the financial flexibility to venture more deeply into the free-agent market and still meet their objective of getting the payroll under the million luxury-tax threshold.

When I asked if that meant someone like Alex Cobb was a possibility, Cashman didn't object, at least in a general sense.

"We're open-minded on anything as long as it hits our pressure points,'' was the way he put it. "We're looking to do more. You can never have enough pitching."

Now that he has his manager, Brian Cashman's next focus is to build his 2018 Yankees. (Elsa/Getty Images)

By "pressure points," Cashman was again making it clear the Yankees won't be swayed from getting under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold. But he acknowledged that with some $70 million coming off the payroll in expired contracts, the Yankees should have room to absorb significant salary.

And while there is no indication they'd be willing to pay at the top of this free-agent class for someone like Jake Arrieta or Yu Darvish, there has been speculation in the industry that the Yanks have interest in Cobb, the 30-year old righthander who made an impressive comeback from Tommy John surgery last season with the Rays.

Whether they seriously pursue him could depend at least partly on the price if multiple teams bid on Cobb. He's likely to get $16-17 million a year, but term would be more important to the Yankees, and it's hard to see them going beyond four years in such a deal.

Chances are, in fact, Cashman would be relatively disciplined in any pursuit of a free agent, knowing he still has a strong rotation core in Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, and Jordan Montgomery, and also has a lot of promising young pitching in the farm system.

Aaron Boone will inherit a strong core of young players, but the Yankees still have holes to fill. (TOM UHLMAN/AP)

That could allow him to put off making moves until next summer at the trade deadline, giving him time to see if someone like Chance Adams proves ready to step into the rotation.

After pulling off difference-making trades last July, in fact, Cashman wants to make sure he can add salary next summer and still stay under the luxury tax threshold.

"Whatever we do this offseason," he said, "We have to leave room for in-season trades. But we'll be looking at everything. We'll try to gravitate to the best idea."

That could mean making a trade this winter as well, and the Yankees still have a strong farm system after dealing off four top prospects — Blake Rutherford, Jorge Mateo, James Kaprielian, and Dustin Fowler — in last summer's trades with the A's for Gray and the White Sox for David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Todd Frazier.

Shohei Otani would've made for a cost-effective rotation solution, but now the Yankees must look elsewhere. (Koji Sasahara/AP)

In fact, Jim Callis of MLBpipeline.com said Monday he ranks the Yankees' farm system at No. 8 among all MLB organizations, going into the offseason.

"Their depth is still very impressive,'' Callis said, "even after all the talent they've graduated the big leagues or traded."

The Yankees still have some blue-chip position-prospects in Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Estevan Florial, and Miguel Andujar, but they're more pitching-heavy at the top of their prospect lists these days.

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Adams might be the only starter considered major-league ready at the start of the 2018 season, but others such as Justus Sheffield, Domingo Acevedo, Domingo German, and Albert Abreu could be ready at some point next season.

CC Sabathia could return on a short-term deal if the Yankees decide not to hand out a big free-agent contract to a starting pitcher. (Kathy Willens/AP)

Scouts I've spoken to rave about the progress they've seen from many of those pitchers in the last year or so. They consider the Yankees loaded with power pitchers under age 25, including last summer's first and second-round draft picks, Clarke Schmidt and Matt Sauer, and that type of depth could pay dividends in the coming years.

None of them come as highly-touted as Otani, the Japanese sensation the Yankees were hoping to plug into the top of their rotation next season.

Cashman was none too thrilled to find out on Sunday the Japanese star had no interest in playing for the Yankees, especially after he and his staff had put much time and effort into impressing Otani via the questionnaire his agents had requested from teams.

His bargain cost would have made it easy for the Yankees to get better while staying under the luxury-tax threshold, but this offseason still represents the most financial flexibility Cashman has had in years.